Pre-reading

Question: Did Robinson and other people on the ship go back after the hurricane was away?

Intensive Reading

When the hurricane was away, we saw that we were close to the northern part of South America. We were near the Orinoco River. This wasn’t part of our plan. The ship was broken. We couldn’t go to Africa. The captain wanted to go back and repair the ship. But I didn’t want to go back. We talked about it. We decided to go to Barbados. We wanted to repair the ship there.

飓风过后，我们看到我们离南美洲北部很近。我们在奥里诺科河附近。这不是我们计划的一部分。船坏了。我们不能去非洲了。船长想回去修船。但我不想回去。我们商量了一下。我们决定去巴巴多斯。我们想在那里修船。

Before we got to Barbados, a second hurricane came in the evening. The wind was very strong. The waves were big. Then one man shouted, “Land!”

在我们到达巴巴多斯之前，第二场飓风在晚上来临。风很大。海浪很大。后来一个人喊道：“靠岸！”

When the man shouted “Land!”, the ship stopped. The sea wasn’t deep enough. It was bad for our broken ship. The ship could break every second. We had to go on a smaller boat. This was very dangerous. The boat was very small for 17 men. But we had to do it if we wanted to save our lives.

当那个人大喊“靠岸！”时，船停了下来。海不够深。这对我们坏掉的船很不利。船随时都可能会坏。我们不得不乘一艘小一点的船。这是非常危险的。这艘船很小，只能载17个人。但是如果我们想要活命，就必须这么做。

So we were on a small boat. The waves were very big. The wind was extremely strong. The wind pushed us to big rocks. We knew that the crash was close.

所以我们坐了一艘小船。海浪很大。风非常大。风把我们吹到了大石头上。我们知道我们快要撞船了。

Suddenly, a big wave came. The wave overturned the boat. I was under water. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t see the other men. I didn’t see the boat.

突然，一股巨浪袭来。海浪掀翻了小船。我沉入水中。我无法呼吸。我没看到其他人。我没看到那艘小船。

Notes:

1.go back: 返回，“流逝；过去”可以用go by。

2.decide to do sth.: 决定做某事，“决定”可以用decide on sth.。

3.get to: 到达，“开始努力做”可以用get down to sth.。

Exercise:

Why did Robinson and other people choose to take a smaller boat?